Tobacco Industry Vs Aus Government.

The legislation requiring all cigarettes be sold in drab olive-brown packs with prominent health warnings will have to return to the lower house for a final tick of approval after the start date was amended to December 2012 - six months later than planned.

British American Tobacco Australia said it would start legal proceedings once plain packaging becomes law, arguing it is unconstitutional to remove its trademarks and other intellectual property without compensation.

The historic laws will prohibit tobacco companies from displaying their distinctive colors and brand designs on cigarette packs in a bid to make smoking less attractive to the young.

It makes Australia the world's toughest country when it comes to the promotion and sale of cigarettes.

Tobacco companies including Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco are vehemently opposed to the measures and have said they will challenge the laws in court.

Tobacco company Philip Morris claims that plain packaging severely diminishes the value of the company's trademark. British American Tobacco Australia Ltd., the Australian market leader, warned that the government would have to spend millions in legal fees in numerous legal challenges to the law and potentially billions in compensation.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said that her government was "determined to take away the last method of advertising" cigarettes in Australia.

"We're not going to be bullied into not taking this action just because tobacco companies say they might fight us in the courts. We're ready for that if they do take legal action," she said.

Health warnings with graphic images of the harmful effects of smoking will have to make up 75 percent of the front of the packaging and 90 percent of the back. This will include often gruesome images of the consequences of smoking, such as mouth cancer and gangrenous toes. Graphic health warnings currently cover only 30 percent of packs.

Similar graphic warning labels were due to be placed on cigarette packets in the US from September 2012, but a federal judge temporarily blocked the move Monday while a case about whether the labels are constitutional proceeds.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wants tobacco makers to place stronger warnings and graphic pictures on the top half of cigarette packets.

Five tobacco companies, including Reynolds American and Lorillard, have sued the FDA in US District Court for the District of Columbia, arguing that the graphic images violate the First Amendment's free speech clause.


SourCe

Good. Fuck cigarettes and fuck Big Tobacco. Greedy, cold-hearted murderers is what they are. I wish they would just outlaw the fucking things already.